What about relays in track and field or swimming? That's a "team" sport. Seems silly to go the whole individual route.

How the voting IOC subcommittee considers trampoline, modern pentathlon (which really isn't modern by the way), rhythmic gymnastics, and horse jumping more fitting than wrestling to reflect the Olympic idea is beyond me.

Rulon Gardner beating Karelin, Karelin's 6-year streak without giving up a point, the Schultz brothers winning gold in LA, and Blatnick beating lymphoma, an Olympic lockout and then finally winning gold in '84.

Sorry, when you have moments like that, your sport should be grandfathered in for eternity at the Olympics.

Trampoline and Rhythmic Gymnastics are disciplines of the larger Gymnastics sport, horse jumping is part of Equestrian. The way it works is the Sport gets the spot, then they have various disciplines of the sport and then events for each discipline. So cutting those two disciplines doesn't free up the larger sport spot.

Modern Pentathlon on the other hand is its own sport that could have been cut instead.

We live in a society where people born on third base constantly try to steal second, yet we expect people born with two strikes against them to hit a homerun on the first pitch.

Shoju wrote:The Olympics should be about achieving the pinnacle of your sport. To that end, I don't understand why they want to include Tennis, Golf, Baseball, Softball, Basketball, or Soccer.

But even then, the four latter sports don't even send in their best players to the Olympics more often than not.

3 out of 4 ain't bad.

Basketball - Colangelo and Dr. K put together their team that they thought would mesh together and win with Spain and Argentina sending their best players.

Soccer - Tell that to any Mexico fan and you'll get punched in the face. Just because Messi, Rooney, and other top tier names weren't there doesn't mean countries are sending below-grade teams. Matching talent with teamwork is a difficult balance to master.

Pretty sure Baseball, and softball for women, wont be an Olympic sport for a while. Less international than Basketball but just as top heavy.

The exclusion of Baseball and Softball hit Softball the hardest since Japan and Hispanic nations have fairly well developed leagues for baseball, but lots of funding was cut to the startup softball programs so even if Baseball comes back Softball might stay on the sidelines.

We live in a society where people born on third base constantly try to steal second, yet we expect people born with two strikes against them to hit a homerun on the first pitch.

Cogglamp wrote:Soccer - Tell that to any Mexico fan and you'll get punched in the face. Just because Messi, Rooney, and other top tier names weren't there doesn't mean countries are sending below-grade teams. Matching talent with teamwork is a difficult balance to master.

Remember that Olympic Soccer has some very bizarre restrictions. I believe that it's "no more than 3 players over age 24" for each team. Something like that, anyway.

As far as totally cutting team sports - no way. Olympic hockey is the best hockey!

(And anyway, I'd never, ever be able to see Water Polo or Team (European) Handball if they took that away...)

Most people want the wealth produced by a society with limited government distributed to them more generously by bigger government.

Koatanga wrote:I think the Olympics should be about personal achievement, so i would toss out all team sports.

And yes, I say that as a rabid rugby fan who is delighted that Rugby Sevens will be in the next Olympics. If it's going to have team sports anyway, might as well have entertaining ones.

But yeah, kick out all team sports and get back to individual competition.

So no track and swimming relay events? No team pursuit?!

No relay events, no synchronised swimming or diving, no group gymnastics medals, no rowing, no basketball, hockey, bobsledding, volleyball, handball, field hockey, soccer, rugby, curling, cycling... Just individuals.

But it's not going to happen, so Kiwis will enjoy seeing Rugby Sevens, and continue to pick up our usual "sitting down" medals in rowing, cycling, sailing, and dressage.

I think it was the LA Olympics where every Kiwi medal (9 if I recall) was earned sitting down - including our archer who shot from a wheelchair.

I'm surprised as well, but as I didn't know anything about Pistorius' personality before this it's hard to say that I would never have imagined something like this. Angry men do violence all the time, and if he did kill her (everything points to it so far, but it's not much information) he'll hopefully go to jail for a long time, like he deserves.

Now, the more juicy part of this: Was he on drugs, and did they make him more aggressive?

Well, if you followed any news of the guy since the Olympics, it seems he was kind of a prima-donna prick. The media made him out to be some kind of hero just because he qualified for the Olympics, but the stories from the ParaOlympics showed some of his true stripes. So, something like this? No more of a surprise than an NFL guy beating up his girlfriend or worse..

Amirya wrote:... because everyone needs a Catagonskin rug.

twinkfist wrote:i feel bad for the Mogu...having to deal with alcoholic bears.

How do you as a parent address something like this? Do you emphasis the positives while trying to keep the negatives out of it?

I'm honest with my kids. Maybe too honest. My 10 year old is pretty bummed about it. He's more interested in "non baseball sports" than my oldest, and my daughter couldn't give a flying field pie about sports.

I told my 10 year old that being famous doesn't change the fact that you're still human, and still have to abide by laws. If he really did kill her, he'll have to face the court the same way as someone else.

This is all Selig's fault in the first place -- Everyone knew he was a terrible owner from his days as the owner of the Montreal Expos. They allow him to sell the Expos to the MLB, so the Expos become a team owned by the other 29 teams, then he buys the Marlins... and screws them just as bad?

Klaudandus wrote:This is all Selig's fault in the first place -- Everyone knew he was a terrible owner from his days as the owner of the Montreal Expos. They allow him to sell the Expos to the MLB, so the Expos become a team owned by the other 29 teams, then he buys the Marlins... and screws them just as bad?

Yeah, that is a mess. I wonder how and why he rated so highly above the other potential buyers for the Marlins?

Amirya wrote:... because everyone needs a Catagonskin rug.

twinkfist wrote:i feel bad for the Mogu...having to deal with alcoholic bears.